A number of combat vehicles, such as tanks, are equipped with a large bore cannon and a machine gun that are aimed and by a common sight and may be fired independently or simultaneously. Such weapons systems are in generally in use, and are known as "coax guns" that, except for a very small parallax offset, fire on the same aiming axis.
Prior art weapons effects simulators using gas and oxidizer combustion to produce the sound and flash of the weapons have been devised separately for both machine guns and large bore cannons, and such simulators are presently in use. Since the fuel and oxidizer supplies, regulators, and many power and timing functions are identical for both types of weapons, it is desireable from the viewpoints of both cost and reliability to combine the two weapons effects simulators into a single unit sharing common components to the greatest extent possible.
Prior art weapons effects simulators have also not been capable of producing the magnitude of visible flash and volume of smoke produced by firing live ammunition large bore rounds from cannons.
There is also a need for producing substantial amounts of smoke for realistic indication of a vehicle disablement in combat traing scenarios. Prior art smoke generators are extremely large and complex, and do not respond instantaneously with sufficient smoke to provide the necessary realism.